But
2016 will not be a good time to be president. The economy will be in a
shambles and there will inevitably be blood. It comes, said Charles
Dickens, the moment economy sinks below equilibrium, which is now. And
today we see first blood among my relatives (on both sides) in Northern
Ireland. But don’t sweat the small stuff. China has not yet avenged
itself for the horrors brought upon it by Japan in World War II. And it
will, because karma, the soul force of the East, demands it. China, said
Richard Nixon, remembers a thousand years.

So those who think of running for president in 2016 — so far that includes New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Jeb Bush as the kind of eastern liberals whom Uncle Ted Nugent has tagged RINOs, then the brilliant and innovative Bobby Jindal and the enthusiastic Nikki Haley, who should be watched, and Sarah Palin, still to be heard from, and Rick Perry and probably Newt Gingrich — should beware.

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Following Rand Paul’s success in recent days — he met with the rising generation’s Naftali Bennett in Israel and well challenged Secretary Clinton’s no-fault foreign policy — he is said to be considering a run in 2016. One conservative commentator said he should not run for the very simple reason that he cannot win. Maybe not. But he should run anyway.

This is a growing force. Let it grow. There is a need to see the distinction between old school and new school, and that isn’t fully clear yet. But it will become apparent in the 2016 Republican primary.

Romney ran in 2008 as a trial run for 2016 and half the crew who ran last year did as well. Paul should do likewise in 2016. Let it play through, until 2020. Possibly real conservatives need to see the failure of the Republican (and Democratic) traditions in their final manifestation of Christie/Bush. Let 2016 be their swansong. Natural leadership will arise from that in a new true conservatism (states’ rights, sound money, constitutional government), and the essential leader of this new conservatism could well be Rand Paul.